Earlier this week, the Bishop of Southern Ohio, The Right Reverend Kristin Uffelman White, announced plans to defrock Episcopal priest Dan McClain. McClain, previously the rector of St. Paul’s Dayton, is the subject of a Title IV complaint filed by Anglican Watch and our editor, Eric Bonetti. At the heart of the Title IV complaint are allegations…
The Rev. Dr. William J. Danaher, Jr., rector of Christ Church, Cranbrook, Mich., negotiated a Title IV accord with Michigan Bishop Wendell N. Gibbs in December 2019. The signing of the accord concluded a Title IV process that began when multiple parishioners filed complaints about Danaher, alleging bullying, violations of confidentiality, and other behaviors inconsistent…
Following a series of well-crafted legal memoranda by church attorney Steven J. Ellcessor, the Title IV hearing panel in the Dan McClain case has granted partial summary judgment on behalf of the Diocese and recommended that the bishop diocesan remove McClain from ministry. The decision is the result of a Title IV complaint filed against…
November 13, 2025 To the Faithful of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Grace and peace to you in God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Over the past few weeks, we have all been disturbed by news of charges against the Archbishop by a number of women and men, several of them members…
Since this publication’s founding, we’ve maintained a strong focus on the Episcopal Church’s Title IV clergy disciplinary canons, their problematic implementation, and the challenges posed by the dysfunctional Title IV process for the church and its members. Today, we’re going a step further and calling for the wholesale re-write of Title IV. None of our…
Ed: The meltdown in ACNA is almost identical to the corrupt handling of disciplinary complaints against bishops in the Episcopal Church. Even now, we routinely see intake officer Barb Kempf dismissing cases on pretextual bases, including making unauthorized findings of fact and evidentiary decisions. By David Baumgardner, Baptist News Global The crisis enveloping the Anglican…
Anglican Watch is watching the slow-motion train wreck involving allegations that ACNA is mishandling abuse allegations, not with glee, but with dismay. Since the Episcopal Church gives us plenty to write about when it comes to the topics of abuse and mishandling of abuse allegations, we’d like to offer some suggestions to ACNA leadership. 1….
In a move that should (but won’t) inspire Episcopal Church officials, ACNA Archbishop Stephen Wood has announced that he will take a leave of absence during clergy disciplinary proceedings against him. The move may reduce the possibility of a conflict of interest, as ACNA canons would otherwise have involved Wood in the proceedings against him….
On the one-year anniversary of the release of the Makin Report, which detailed the Church of England’s disastrous non-response to decades of spiritual, sexual, physical, emotional and other abuse by the late barrister John Smyth, the Episcopal Church (TEC) has made almost no meaningful improvement in its own response to ongoing abuse within the denomination….
“A church that can’t do right by victims of sexual abuse should not exist.” ACNA priest the Rev. Robert Sturdy There’s an uproar in the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) over allegations of sexual abuse and misuse of church funds by the denomination’s archbishop, Stephen Wood. And even as distressing as the allegations are,…
Ed: Parts of this post are cut and pasted from our previous coverage, found here. We’re a bit tired and overwhelmed just now; too much corruption in the Episcopal Church, too few hours in the day! A so far unsuccessful lawsuit against perjuring Episcopal priest Will Bouvel by conservative Episcopal Church member David Duggan has…
Anglican Watch spotted a flurry of filings today by attorneys in the Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue litigation, which involves allegations of sexual assault and defamation. In this post, we’ll tell you what those filings are, what we think they mean, and why we suspect there may be a conflict of interest by one of…
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 20, 2025 /Christian Newswire/ — Episcopal Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe and the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York are refusing to follow the denomination’s Title IV clergy disciplinary canons, according to unofficial church watchdog Anglican Watch. The news follows a Title IV clergy disciplinary complaint filed against the Rev. Rebecca Roberts, rector of St….
One of the truly irritating things about the Episcopal Church’s Title IV clergy disciplinary canon is that virtually no one — including in Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe’s office — bothers to read it, or take the requirements of Title IV seriously. So it comes as no surprise that the Episcopal Diocese of Texas has screwed…
We’ve previously covered the ongoing Title IV issues with Cayce Ramey in the Diocese of Virginia. A review of the information posted on the Diocese of Virginia website reveals that, despite a Court of Appeals decision overturning the Title IV hearing panel’s decision to defrock Ramey, the Diocese is moving forward with two separate Title…
You’d think that, by now, parishes in The Episcopal Church would be tired of pulling the whole “So-and-so is a terrorist, so we’re barring them from the church” routine. Yet, even with the storm brewing in the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the profound damage to parishes that comes from engaging in this behavior,…
As Anglican Watch continues our investigation into corruption at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, we’ve come to realize that life at the parish is really first class. As in, first-class staterooms on the Titanic, after that nasty scraping sound along the hull. And there’s no better example than the outrageous spending for a condo for…
The Episcopal Diocese of New York appears to have a dual standard regarding confidentiality in the midst of the Title IV cases against various clergy at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue involving sexual assault and related misconduct, including an attempt at cover-up. That includes contacting the victim’s employer with defamatory comments intended to interfere with his…
Today’s post highlights one of the ugliest aspects of the failed parish and diocesan responses to allegations of abuse at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Specifically, in addition to retaliating against the complainant, the parish and the Diocese have gone out of their way to harm the complainant, with the Diocese even saying in writing…
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia There have been unmistakable signs of tension between St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and the Episcopal Diocese of New York since the stuff first hit the fan over multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment by St. Thomas staff against an adult male parishioner. This tension underscores the importance of an independent…
Screen cap of “Saint David of Wales” by porn producer and St. Thomas resident Erich Erving. Full frontal nudity redacted. Original is exclusively the property of the creator. One of the amusing things for those of us who cover the church abuse beat is how clueless church officials are about leaks of information in the…
There’s a perception in some quarters that Anglican Watch is hostile to the Diocese of Virginia (DioVA). We’ll leave that to others to decide, but we want to be clear on our position about Cayce Ramey and the Diocese. Specifically, DioVA had it more right than wrong in going after Ramey, despite the Court of…
Sean Rowe recently made a statement in which he said that the Episcopal Church, once the church of presidents, now must be an engine of resistance. To that we say, “Actually, the Episcopal Church is still the church of presidents. It’s just that presidents, like the rest of us, long ago quit attending, and have…
Earlier, Anglican Watch reported on the arrest of two St. Thomas Fifth Avenue employees over allegations of sexual assault. Now, the church’s rector, the Rev. Carl F. Turner, has made matters far worse, sending out a notice about the alleged victim that we believe to be defamatory. A copy of the notice, which is on…
The situation at St.Thomas, Fifth Avenue, the storied church home of the Astors and other Gilded Age pillars of society, is going from bad to worse. Specifically, Anglican Watch has heard from several individuals who report sexual abuse and harassment, as well as spiritual abuse. We believe at least two will forward their complaints to law enforcement….
You can’t make this stuff up. Two men, William Davis and Fr. Mark Schultz, have allegedly been arrested by New York police following allegations that they sexually abused an adult male individual connected with St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Both are church employees. The alleged victim also reported the matter via a Title IV clergy…
A recent review by Anglican Watch of Cobb County, Georgia, court filings suggests further issues with Episcopal priest Ben Day and possible substance abuse, despite a previous Title IV clergy disciplinary complaint filed by this publication with the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. The pro se filing by former parishioner Art Blackburn asks the courts to…
Baltimore-area media recently reported on the arrest of former Roman Catholic priest William Mannion, who allegedly committed multiple acts of child sexual abuse from 1991 to 1994 prior to his laicization from the priesthood for unrelated reasons. Anglican Watch is reporting on the matter to illustrate the profound difference between the Catholic response to allegations…
Following an interview in which former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby attributed his failure to address abuse on the scope of the problem, the Church of England issued the following statement. Anglican Watch reminds readers that, in the Episcopal Church, more than a dozen church officials, including former presiding bishop Michael Curry, ignored the allegations that…
NEWS PROVIDED BY Anglican Watch March 31, 2025 ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31, 2025 /Standard Newswire/ — A criminal trial of Episcopal priest and alleged child rapist Richard Losch is set for April 8-9, 2025 in the Grafton New Hampshire Superior Court. The case is State v. Richard Losch, docket: 215-2023-CR-0609. The case stems from allegations dating…